Stefan's Florilegium

compost-msg

A
medieval pickled food composed of mixed fruits and vegetables. Also called
compote. "Compost is a mixed pickle, usually, but not always, made from
mixed fruits, vegetables, and sometimes immature nuts, usually in a sauce made
from honey, white wine, vinegar, mustard and other spices."

This
file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have
collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date
back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's
Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at:
http://www.florilegium.org

I
have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate
topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous
information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save
space and remove clutter.

The
comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no
claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.

Please
respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The
copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is
published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

1.
Recipe calls for "wyne greke" or Greek Wine, which the glossary in
Curye on

Inglysch
defines as "...a sweet type of wine which actually came from
Italy..."

Marsala
fit this description nicely.

2.
I omitted the parsley root as it was unavailable at the time.

3.
I define "poudre" here to mean pepper.

4.
The "...lumbarde mustard..." is taken from another recipe in Forme
of Curye.

5.
I have found numerous descriptions of "powdre douce" which vary
widely, often containing sugar, cinnamon, ginger, mace and cloves. I have
omitted the sugar as I feel the dish is sweet enough with the honey and sweet
wine. I have also used fresh ginger as has Terence Scully in his Early French
Cooking in recipes which call for this mixture. I also believe that it adds
more to the sweet-sour contrast that was popular in this period.

So
you see, mine is a different...but yours is so much simpler. The result of

what
I did is, as noted by others, similar to a chutney.

Kiri

From: Philip Troy <troy at asan.com>

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] COMPOST

Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 00:59:05 -0400

On Monday 22 October 2001 12:00, Mark.S Harris wrote:

> On the other hand, I'm now familar with compost having even made

> some myself. But what are "Italian mustard-fruits"? And
are they

> period?

There's an Italian preparation nearly identical to compost made and
sold

commercially under a name that translates into English as Mustard
Fruits

(more or less). I seem to recall small baby pears being involved,
maybe

grapes, etc.., all in a sort of honey-mustard sauce.

Adamantius

Date:
Fri, 26 Oct 2001 17:14:32 -0400

From:
Elaine Koogler <ekoogler at chesapeake.net>

To:
sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Subject:
Re: [Sca-cooks] Please post:::Compost??

Here
is the recipe I used for a Coronation a couple of years ago. Everyone turned
up their noses at the name, not to mention when I described the ingredients.
But once it was made, it was VERY popular!! I hope you enjoy it:

103.
Compost. Take parsley root, parsnips, radish, scrape them and wash themclean.
Take turnips and cabbages, pared and cleaned. Take an pottery pan withclean
water and set it on the fire. Put all of these in the pot. . When theyhave
boiled, add pears and parboil them well. Take all these things up and let
itcool on a fair cloth. Add salt; when it is cold, put it in a vessel; take
vinegarand poudre and saffron and add it, and let all these things lie therein
all nightor all day. Take Greek wine (sweet) and honey, clarified together;
take Lumbardmustard and currents all whole, and grind cinnamon, poudre douce
and anise wholeand fennel seed. Take all these things and cast together in an
earthen pot andtake thereof when you will and serve it forth. (Forme of Cury
from Curye onInglysch)

Redaction:
(Makes about 4 cups)

6
radishes 4 T. Honey

4
cabbage leaves 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

1
parsnip 1 tsp. fresh ginger root,

diced
finely

2
turnips 1/4 tsp. mace

1
pear 1/4 tsp. cloves

1
tsp. Salt 1/2 tsp. fennel seed

1
1/2 C. red wine vinegar 1/4 cup currants

1/2
tsp. Pepper 1 Tbsp. Lumbard mustard

1
pinch saffron 1/2 tsp whole anise seed

1
1/2 C. Sweet wine (Marsala)

1.
Parboil root vegetables, cabbage in water until almost tender

2.
Add to vegetables and continue parboiling until tender. Drain and cool.

1.
Recipe calls for =93wyne greke=94 or Greek Wine, which the glossary in Curye
onInglysch defines as =93=85a sweet type of wine which actually came from
Italy=85=94Marsala seemed to fit this description nicely. However, upon
researching theissue further (i.e., asking this list), I discovered that
Marsala isn't period, soI would try to find a sweet Greek wine to use.

2.
I omitted the parsley root, as it was unavailable in the small town where I

live,
but I understand that it is available elsewhere.

3.
I define =93poudre=94 here to mean pepper.

4.
The =93=85lumbarde mustard=85=94 is taken from a recipe further on in Forme of
Cury, which I have redacted below.

5.
I have found numerous descriptions of =93powdour douce=94 which vary widely,
often containing sugar, cinnamon, ginger, mace and cloves. I have omitted the
sugar as I feel it is sweet enough with the honey and sweet wine. I have also
used fresh ginger, as have the authors of Early French Cooking (Terence Scully)
and To the KingÕs Taste (Lorna J. Sass) in other recipes which called for
powdour douce. I believe that it adds more to the sweet-sour contrast that was
so popular in this

period.

Kiri

From:
"Vincent Cuenca" <bootkiller at hotmail.com>

To:
sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Date:
Mon, 26 Nov 2001 23:04:28 +0000

Subject:
[Sca-cooks] New compost recipe (long)

Ya
know, I had mentioned that I was fooling around with compost, but I never

actually
posted the recipe.

The
original is from a 1947 article by Faraudo de Saint-Germain entitled

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Getting the
most use out of a particular food

To: "'sca-cooks at
ansteorra.org'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

"compost" is Old French for
"mixture" and does not specify of what the mixture consists. In
Medieval cookbooks, compost normally refers to a mixture of fruits or
vegetables in a pickle or syrup. This usage of compost has since evolved into
compote.

Bear

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 14:09:57 -0700

From: lilinah at earthlink.net

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Getting the
most use out of a particular food

compost. Take þo chekyns and hew hom..chekyns þou put þerto,
And þen of

þe herbz..And tendurly seyth hit. ?a1475 Noble Bk.Cook.(Hlk
674) 111:

To mak composte tak chekins and..saige, parsly, lekes..and boille
it.

a1486(c1429) Menu Baquet Hen.VI in Archaeol.57 (Mrg M 775) 58:
Le

iij Course: Compost..Venison rost, Egrettz.

------------

The Apician recipe may be the one for

How to Preserve Fresh Figs, and Apples, Plums, Pears, and Cherries.

Gather them carefully with their stalks an put them in honey, so that

they do not touch each other. First Book. sect XII recipe 4. page 53
of

the Flower and Rosenbaum edition The Roman Cookery Book. That's the

closest that I could find which would be a fruit in honey at its most

basic.

Johnnae llyn Lewis

Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2003 20:51:31 -0700

From: "Patricia Collum" <pjc2 at cox.net>

Subject: [Sca-cooks] Compost recipe (no, not the garden stuff!)

To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at
ansteorra.org>

It just so happened that I made composte for the first time for the
event

this weekend. It was supposed to be for Selene's vigil but I got my
nights

confused, so it ended up being added to the luncheon the next day. It
went

over quite well. The recipe I used was based on:

Compost from Curye on Inglysch pp. 120-21

"Take rote of persel, of pasternak, of rafens, scrape hem and
waishe hem

clene. Take rapes and caboches, ypared and icone. Take an erthen panne
with

clene water and set it on the fire; cast alle thise perinne. When they
both

boiled cast therto peeres, and perboil hem well. Take alle thise
thynges and lat it kele on a faire clothe. Do therto salt; when it is cold, do
hit in a vessal; take vynegar and powdour and safroun and do therto, and lat
alle thise thynges lye there all night, other all day. Take wyne greke and
hony, clarified together; take lumbards mustard and raisouns coraunce. All
hoole, and gryne powder of canel, powder douce and aneys hole and fennel seed.
Take all thise thynges and cast togyder in a pot of erthe, and take therof when
thou wilt and serve it forth." -as posted in the composte message files at
Stephan's Florilegium.

Some of the choices I made were to use what I had on hand, as in the
cooking

wines and vinegars. I couldn't find my saffron (pesky stuff), and I
added

carrots instead of celery root, so that there would be a recognizeable
root

veggie. The lumbard mustard would be a honey mustard in period, so I
used an

imported german one. Here is my recipe:

1/2 lb. pkg. baby carrots

2 bunches radishes, trimmed and larger ones cut in half crosswise

2 large parsnips, peeled and cut in 1/2 inch slices

2 medium turnips, peeled and cut into 1 inch chuncks

1/3 small head of cabbage, sliced thin

1 1/2 cups white cooking wine

1/2 cup cooking sherry

1/2 cup honey

1 cup dried currants

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves, fresh ground from whole

1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp ginger

1 tsp mace

1/2 tsp cardamom

1/4 cup honey mustard

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup white wine vinegar

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

2 -15 ounce cans lite sliced pears, drained and cut in 1 inch chunks

1 Tbsp whole anise seeds

1 Tbsp whole fennel seeds

In a large kettle, bring the carrots, radishes, parsnips and turnips
to a